Harry Potter and the Myriod
by Falling Innocence
Summary: Colin discovers a myriod in the FF, and Harry goes through it. When he comes out, he finds a girl that he has been dreaming about and brings her back to Hogwarts so she can help fight Voldemort, who's back. Takes place in 6th year, please R/R!!!
1. The Dream, The Forest, and the Myriod

A redheaded girl ran through a forest, followed by something that she knew was trying to kill her. She had no idea who or what the thing was; she only knew that it was trying to kill her. It was near dusk, and the forest was silent. Her hair streamed out behind her like a flaming banner as she ran. There is a howl in the distance. She started to run faster unknowingly. Her blue eyes were wide with terror.  
  
"Oh God, oh God, help me," she said under her breath. She started crying as she ran without realizing it. She heard the thing behind her, gaining on her every second. A scream escaped, despite her attempts to smother it. "Help!!!" she shrieked.  
  
Suddenly, a hand reached down from a nearby tree.  
  
"Give me your hand!" a boy's voice yelled. "Don't hesitate, just do it!"  
  
She grabbed his hand and he pulled her up into the tree. "Who are you?" she asked him. Because of the darkness, it was hard for her to see him and everything else. She could faintly distinguish his messy hair.  
  
"Shh," he said, staring intently at the ground below them.  
  
She turned her gaze to the forest floor as well. Suddenly, the air around them felt cold. She shivered. A figure in a black cloak appeared below them, walking slowly.  
  
"Oh, my, Lord," she said softly. The boy hit her hand lightly to indicate she needed to shut up. The figure in the cloak stopped and looked around. The girl started to shake.  
  
The figure stood there for a few moments, looking around. Her heart beat quicker every second. Finally, the figure walked off, the end of its cloak dragging on the ground. She let out a sigh of relief, as did the boy.  
  
"Now," she said, turning to him. "Who are you? And where are we?"  
  
"My name is Harry Potter," the boy said. "We're in the Dark Forest. I don't know how we got here, but we're here."  
  
"My name is Callen. I don't even know where the Dark Forest is," she said unhappily.  
  
"It's the forest outside of Hogwarts," he explained.  
  
"And that is....where?" she asked.  
  
"It's a school for witches and wizards," he said patiently.  
  
"Oh," she said blankly. "I had no idea there were such things as witches and wizards."  
  
"Well, there are," he said importantly. "And there are unicorns, and fairies, and pixies and"  
  
"Of course there are fairies," she said, cutting him off. "I mean, I knew there were fairies. I'm part fairy!"  
  
"What?" he said, amazed.  
  
"Yep. My mother is a fairy, and my father is a StarChild," she said.  
  
"Well, I'm a wizard, and I still have no idea how both of us got out here," he said, starting to get down from the tree.  
  
"Come to think of it, I can't remember how I got in here, either," she said. She started to climb down after him, but halfway down she slipped and fell. She screamed, then blacked out. Or actually, woke up. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
She sat up in her bed, trying desperately to remember her dream and why she had screamed. A second later, her door swung open. Her mother was standing there.  
  
"Darling, what's wrong? What happened?" her mother demanded  
  
"I was dreaming...and someone was chasing me...and there was a boy...I fell out of a tree...I woke up screaming..." she said, her dream falling to pieces.  
  
"Well, it was only a dream. Are you sure you're all right?" her mother asked.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine, Mother. Good night," she said, lying down again.  
  
  Her mother left, closing the door softly. Instead of sleeping, however, Callen lay awake, trying fervently to remember her dream. She had a feeling that it was telling her of something that was to come, or that had happened already. Finally, an hour before dawn, she fell asleep.  
  
About the same time she fell asleep, far away in a castle somewhere in Scotland, the boy that was in her dream woke up.  
  
"That was strange," he muttered, rolling over. He looked at his clock, then tried to bury his face in his pillow. He fell asleep again, only to be woken a few seconds later by a small boy - Colin Creevey.  
  
"Harry! Hey, Harry! Wake up! You said you'd teach me to play Chaser today!" Colin said.  
  
"G'way, Colin. It's too early," Harry said, his voice muffled by his pillow.  
  
"But Harry," Colin protested. "You said you would!" He started sniffing, as if he was trying to hold back tears.  
  
"Colin," Harry said, his face still buried in his pillow. "You're fifteen. Are you really going to cry about it?"  
  
Colin quickly stopped sniffing. "I wasn't crying," he said quickly. "I, um, have allergies."  
  
"Sure, Colin," Harry said. He reached out and yanked the curtains around his bed closed.  
  
"Harry!" Colin yelled.  
  
Two beds over, another boy woke up.  
  
"Harry," Seamus Finnagin said, struggling to sit up. "Just take him out and teach him to play before he wakes up the whole bloody castle!" With that, he pulled the curtains around his bed closed.  
  
"I am not going to wake up the whole castle!" Colin shouted indignantly.  
  
"Colin, do us a favor, will you? Shut up!" Ron Weasley yawned, then rolled over.  
  
Dejected, Colin stomped out of the sixth-years' dorm and sat down on the stairs. He tried to pass the time watching the sun rise, but decided that that was too boring and stood up. Whistling, he walked down to the Quidditch field. He sat down in the middle of the field, looking for four- leaf clovers.  
  
After a few minutes, he noticed something strange in the forest – a shimmering area in the blackness. Standing up, he saw that it looked like a pool of water, only it was vertical instead of horizontal.  
  
"Wow," he said. He walked toward it. As he got closer, he realized that it was about the height and width of a door. It rippled slightly, as if the air moved by his approach had disturbed it. "I wonder what this is," he said.  
  
He picked up a stick and poked it. The stick, instead of just pushing the thing, went through it and was suspended halfway. Colin walked around the thing. It appeared the exact same from the back, only the stick wasn't sticking out of it like Colin had expected. It seemed to have disappeared.  
  
"I've got to show someone this," he said determinedly. With that, he ran up to the castle.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"It's a myriod," Hermione pronounced.  
  
"What is that?" Colin asked, disbelieving.  
  
"It's kind of like a portal to another place," Hermione explained. "They show up in places where magic exists. It basically connects two places. Usually they appear when one of the places is going through some sort of trouble and someone or something from the other place can help."  
  
"Really?" Colin asked, excited. "Then maybe someone should go through it and see what's going on on the other side that's so terrible they need our help!"  
  
"It isn't necessarily the people on the other side that need help," Hermione reminded him.  
  
"Yeah, but no one here needs help, do they?" Colin asked.  
  
"Maybe, maybe not. Who knows?" Hermione said, reading through her book again. "It says here that only the person that needs help and the person that can help them can go back and forth through the myriod."  
  
"I'm gong to try it!" Colin declared. He tried to step through the myriod, but only succeeded in walking into it as if it were a wall.  
  
"Obviously you aren't the one that needs help or will help," Hermione said, half-amused. Colin pouted.  
  
"Well, who is?" he asked.  
  
"I think I have an idea," she said, smiling. "Get Harry."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"What do you want, Hermione?" Harry asked, fighting back a yawn.  
  
"I think that you're supposed to go through here," she explained, pointing at the myriod with her wand. Colin frowned.  
  
"I still think that I should be the one, since I found it," he muttered.  
  
"You tried to and it wouldn't let you, remember?" she reminded him.  
  
"Huh?" Harry said, yawning. "I don't feel up to an adventure right now," he added. "It's way too early."  
  
"Just go!" Hermione said, pushing him toward the portal. It shimmered slightly.  
  
"I will, I will," Harry said. He pulled his wand out of the pocket of his robe. "I just want to be prepared," he said.  
  
"GO!" Hermione yelled.  
  
Harry stepped closer to the myriod. It shimmered even more than before. "Here goes," he said bravely. He stepped through the myriod. Everything went black, as if he was going through deep water. The air around him whirled. Finally, it stopped whirling, and it began to lighten. 


	2. Ocenian and Callen: What Harry Found

"Where the hell am I?" Harry wondered aloud. He shook his head, hoping that wherever he was would get lighter faster. The only thing he succeeded in doing was knocking his glasses off. He sighed.  
  
Finally, it got light enough so that he could tell what type of place he was in. It looked like a forest, but it wasn't the same as the Forbidden Forest. He could hear birds singing, wind in the trees, and what sounded like the ocean. He walked toward the area where the light seemed to be coming from and stumbled out onto a beach. He blinked a few times, then gasped.  
  
"Whoa," he said. The beach was beautiful. Pale sand, turquoise sea, and not a rock in sight. He turned around and saw a cliff behind the forest. "Awesome."  
  
Suddenly, he remembered how he had gotten there. He crashed through the trees, looking for the myriod. He was beginning to panic when he saw it – a flash of silver. "There it is!" he said triumphantly. "I guess I should mark it somehow. But how?" he mused. He snapped his fingers and pulled out his wand. "Lienna deha!" he said. Instantly, a red line appeared from the end of his wand. One end of the line connected to the ground below the myriod.  
  
Harry started walking toward the edge of the forest. With each step he took, the line dropped to the ground as if it was painted. He reached the edge of the forest and stopped the line. He walked down the beach, wondering what the heck he was doing so far away from Hogwarts. Because, though it had been about noon when Hermione had finally managed to get him to go down to the forest, he could tell that it was earlier here. The sun appeared to have been up for a few hours, but it didn't seem any later than about 7:30.  
  
He was brought back to the real world abruptly when a wave crashed loudly. He jumped slightly, then started walking down the beach again, wondering what he was supposed to be looking for. After about twenty minutes, he saw what appeared to be a brilliant blue mound. When he got closer to it, he realized that it actually was a blue building that was built to look like a mound. Or something a lot like a mound.  
  
His attention was diverted from the building by the sound of a girl's laughter. He looked over to the ocean and saw a redheaded girl floating in the ocean, staring at the sky and laughing. She started singing, and though he was too far away to distinguish the words, her voice sounded familiar. He decided to ask her where he was.  
  
"Excuse me!" he shouted, walking toward the waves. "Excuse me!"  
  
The girl stopped singing, and started to swim to the shore.  
  
"Excuse me," Harry said, shielding his eyes from the sun, which was reflecting on the water. "Do you think you could tell me where I am?"  
  
The girl reached the shore and stepped onto the sand. She started to wring the water out of her hair. Harry noticed that her blue two-piece swimsuit showed off a perfect figure.  
  
"You're in Ocenian," she said. Her forehead wrinkled. "Do I…know you?" she asked.  
  
"I don't know, but I think I've seen you somewhere before," Harry replied. "Where is Ocenian?"  
  
"It's the city of ocean fairies," the girl explained. "Would you like a tour?"  
  
"Sure," Harry said. He didn't mind spending time with this pretty girl. "What's your name?"  
  
"Callen," the girl replied.  
  
Harry nearly tripped. "Wait, what?"  
  
"Callen," she repeated. "Why, what's wrong?"  
  
"I'm Harry, Harry Potter," he said, hoping she would recognize his name. She did.  
  
"This may sound strange to you, but, did you have a dream about me?" Callen asked.  
  
"Did you have a dream about me?" he asked her.  
  
"Actually, I did," she admitted. "We were in a forest together, and there was a thing in a black cloak chasing me, and you"  
  
"Pulled you into a tree," he finished for her, grinning. "I knew I recognized you!"  
  
"I wonder why we were dreaming about each other," she mused.  
  
"I don't know, but I think I'm beginning to understand something," Harry said, staring off into space.  
  
"What's that?" Callen asked, cocking her head slightly. Her long hair started blowing around her face in the slight breeze that had just come up.  
  
"I think that you're supposed to come with me back to Hogwarts," he explained.  
  
"That…school thing you told me about in my – our dream?" she asked, correcting herself.  
  
"Yes," Harry said, grabbing her arm. "Come on, it's about twenty minutes this way!"  
  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Callen yelled, pulling her arm away. "I'm not going anywhere in a swimsuit. Heck no!"  
  
"Well, can you change?" he asked impatiently.  
  
"Yeah, I have to go up to the palace though," she said, turning. She started running.  
  
"Palace?" Harry asked, his eyes widening. "Are you royalty or something?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm the princess," she called over her shoulder.  
  
"Great, a princess," he muttered, breaking into a run.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"You live here?" he asked, amazed, when they reached the palace.  
  
"Yeah, so?" she said indifferently.  
  
"This is even bigger than Hogwarts!" he said, gazing upward at the glass dome.  
  
"Really? What's Hogwarts like?" she asked, motioning for him to follow her up a staircase.  
  
"It's the most wonderful place in the world!" Harry declared.  
  
"Cool," Callen said. She disappeared through a door, which, like everything else, was a shade of blue. Harry, unsure if he could walk in or if she would be changing, waited outside the door uncertainly.  
  
When Callen reappeared, she was wearing a blue shirt and skirt.  
  
"Is there any reason why everything here is blue?" Harry wanted to know.  
  
She shrugged. "Something to do with how we stay hidden. At least my hair isn't blue."  
  
"Yeah, that would be strange," he agreed. "Why isn't anyone around?"  
  
"Because they're all asleep," she explained. "Let's go."  
  
"Don't you have to leave a note or something?" Harry asked.  
  
"No. My parents don't even realize they have a daughter," she said bitterly. "I can do whatever I want and they don't even notice."  
  
"Oh. I'm sorry," he said, realizing it was a touchy subject. "You ready?"  
  
"Yeah. Let's get out of here."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"So, where exactly is this…Hogwarts?" Callen asked as they walked down the beach.  
  
"It's in Scotland. I think you'll really like it there," he told her.  
  
"Does it have the ocean nearby, or a lake or something? So I can swim?" she asked hopefully.  
  
"It has a lake, but I don't think you're going to want to swim in it," Harry said doubtfully.  
  
"Why not?" she asked, her forehead wrinkling.  
  
"Because it's freezing cold. Believe me, I've been in it," he said, with the air of one explaining something that was completely obvious.  
  
"And you think that the ocean isn't freezing sometimes? I don't care how cold it is. I swim every day, and I don't plan on stopping now just because the lake is cold," she said haughtily.  
  
"Fine, fine, freeze," Harry muttered. He wasn't sure if he liked this girl. She seemed a little touchy about everything. "Look, there it is," he exclaimed, pointing.  
  
"What? Where?" Callen said, looking around. "I don't see anything."  
  
"It's that red line over there," he said, pointing to it again.  
  
"Why is that there?"  
  
"So that I knew where it was when I came back," Harry replied.  
  
"Oh," she said. "What is it?"  
  
"It, is a myriod. Don't ask me exactly what that is, I don't know. You can ask Hermione when we get back to the castle."  
  
"Who's Hermione?" Callen asked, pronouncing the name with difficulty.  
  
"Hermione Granger. She's only the smartest student at Hogwarts," Harry bragged, proud that Hermione was his friend.  
  
"Oh. Does she act like a know-it-all?" she asked.  
  
"Not all the time. Sometimes, she does. But not very often," he added hastily, seeing doubt appear in Callen's eyes.  
  
"I don't know if I want to do this, after all," she said uncertainly. "I mean, going all the way to Scotland from the Bahamas? It doesn't seem very appealing."  
  
"You have to! Remember our dream? You have to help us fight Voldemort!" Harry said desperately. "You have to!"  
  
"Or else what? You'll die?" she asked sarcastically. She turned around. "I'm going home."  
  
"Yeah, I might die!" he shouted after her. "He wants to kill me, and he probably will!"  
  
"Well, that sucks to be you, doesn't it," she called back.  
  
"Come on, if you needed help, I'd help you," he tried.  
  
She turned again. "Do you mean that?"  
  
Harry gave her a look like she was crazy. "Yeah, I guess so."  
  
"All right. I'll help you," she said, walking back. "But if I need help, you have to help me. Okay?"  
  
"Gotcha. Let's go."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Hello, what is that?" Callen asked, pointing to the myriod.  
  
"It's a myriod. Apparently they appear when someone needs help, and they connect two places, the one that needs help and the one where the person or thing that can help is," he explained. "Sorry if that doesn't make any sense."  
  
"It doesn't, but that's all right," Callen reassured him. "So, what do we do now?"  
  
"Go through it."  
  
"Through it? Okay," she said. "Let's go." She grabbed his hand and stepped toward the myriod, which started shimmering again. "One, two, three!" She jumped through it, pulling Harry with her. 


	3. It Can't Be That Hard, Can It?

The air began to whirl, as it did when Harry traveled through the myriod the first time. It was completely black again. Callen tried to scream, but couldn't find her voice. She clenched Harry's hand tighter. He tightened his grasp as well.  
  
Finally, it began to get lighter. Callen noticed that shapes were beginning to appear – it looked like three people standing in the middle of another forest. She moved closer to Harry, suddenly frightened.  
  
"Look, they're back!" a boy yelled. His voice was squeaky.  
  
"Harry? Is that you?" another boy's voice asked.  
  
"Who else would it be, Ron?" a girl said, hitting the second figure upside the head. "He's got someone with him."  
  
Harry stepped out of the myriod, pulling Callen with him.  
  
"Guys, this is Callen," he said. "Callen, this is Ron Weasley, my best friend." He pointed to a tall boy with red hair and freckles. "This is Colin Creevey." The small, mousy boy waved excitedly. "And this is Hermione Granger, my other best friend. She's the one who can tell you about the myriod." Hermione smiled.  
  
"It's good to meet you," she said, stepping forward.  
  
"Why am I here?" Callen asked plainly.  
  
"We don't know yet," Hermione explained. "But we think that you're supposed to help us fight You-Know-Who."  
  
"Who?" Callen said blankly.  
  
"The guy I told you about," Harry explained. "The one that I said wanted to kill me."  
  
"Oh," she said faintly. "So, what am I supposed to do for now?"  
  
"Uh, I don't know," Harry said after a pause. "Hermione?"  
  
"Well, I think that other students would get upset if they found out that she was here to help fight You-Know-Who, so maybe we should just say that she's visiting one of us for a while, then…I don't know what," she finished.  
  
Callen stared at them like they were crazy. "Um, can I say something?" she ventured.  
  
Ron, who had been staring at Callen like she was a goddess, nodded. "Yeah," he said.  
  
"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I don't really want to just hang around here, waiting to vanquish some guy I don't even know about, just because someone dreamed about me," she said. "I mean, I've dreamed about lots of people, but they never appear to help me with anything."  
  
"She's got a point," Colin said. "Who would want to hang around Harry all the time?" he added sarcastically.  
  
"Um, someone like you?" Callen guessed. Harry laughed.  
  
"Yeah, you're right," he said.  
  
Ron suddenly came out of a stupor. "I just thought of something," he said. "If you're going to say you're someone's cousin, you're going to need someone who looks kind of like you."  
  
"I think I know where this is going," Hermione said. "You want her to pretend to be your cousin."  
  
"Well, we look a little alike, don't we?" Ron pleaded. "Come on, I never get to do anything!"  
  
"You think you never get to do anything? I never get to do anything!" Colin yelled. "I didn't get to go through the myriod, and I was the one that found it!"  
  
"Okay, I think I'm just going to go home," Callen muttered. She turned around and was about to disappear into the myriod when three pairs of hands grabbed her.  
  
"You can't leave!" Harry said.  
  
"How do you even know that this guy is going to attack you? How do you know that it isn't my country that needs help?" Callen demanded, wrenching free of Harry's, Ron's, and Hermione's grasp.  
  
"She's got a point," Hermione said.  
  
"So what? We need her here more, I bet," Ron said, annoyed.  
  
"How do you know that?" Callen yelled. "I'm going back!" With that, she stepped through the myriod.  
  
"Great, Ron," Harry yelled. "Just great. Now, we have no idea if we were supposed to help her, or if she was supposed to help us, or anything!"  
  
"Well, it wasn't my fault!" Ron snapped.  
  
"Oh, stop it, you two!" Hermione broke in.  
  
"Well, if Ron could just keep his big trap shut, then maybe for once something would go right!" Harry yelled.  
  
"STOP IT, ALL OF YOU!" Colin screamed, his hands over his ears. Shocked, the three stopped arguing. "Why don't you just go back and get her??" he suggested.  
  
"If the myriod will let me, I will," Harry snapped. He stormed through it.  
  
When he finally came out, he saw Callen sitting on the ground, a few feet away.  
  
"I was wondering if you'd come back," she said, her chin on her knees.  
  
"Why'd you leave?" he asked, going over to her.  
  
She shrugged. "You guys didn't seem to really care what happened to me, as long as I helped kill this Voldemort guy."  
  
"I'm sorry. When it comes to Voldemort, everyone is afraid for their life. Magic society tends to get a little crazy when they hear about him, as well," Harry apologized. "Would you please come back with me? And if we don't need you in a certain amount of time, you can go back," he added.  
  
"Only if after I come back, you or one of your friends comes with me so we can find out if my kingdom needs help," she countered.  
  
"I can't speak for Ron and Hermione, but it's a deal," he said. He reached down and pulled her to her feet. "Are you ready to go back?"  
  
"I guess," she said, shrugging. They stepped back through the myriod.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Guys, she's agreed to come back, but she isn't staying permanently," Harry said when they got back, glaring at Ron.  
  
"And one of you is coming back with me to see if I need help," Callen added.  
  
"I'll go," Ron volunteered.  
  
"Not if the myriod won't let you, Ron," Hermione reminded him.  
  
"Damn," Ron swore. "I never get to do anything."  
  
"I'm sorry," Harry said. "I didn't choose to have Voldemort come split my head open!"  
  
"Don't say his name!" Ron winced.  
  
"Oh, come on, Ron!" Hermione said, exasperated. "You know that Harry would gladly trade you places!"  
  
"Um, are we just going to stand here?" Callen ventured.  
  
"Yes, all day," Colin snapped. He was getting a little annoyed, since Harry wouldn't teach him to play Chaser, he hadn't been the one to go through the myriod, and it was getting hot outside.  
  
"How about we don't, and say we did?" Callen suggested.  
  
"Yeah, let's get inside. But first, we need to get our story straight," Hermione said. "Callen, you are now Callen Weasley, a cousin of Ron's."  
  
"Okay," she replied. Harry laughed.  
  
"Hopefully you aren't anything like him," he teased. Ron blushed a furious pink.  
  
"Better me than you," he shot back.  
  
"Better me than either of you!" Callen butted in. "Hermione, keep going, please."  
  
"You are visiting from Beauxbatons in France. You grew up in London, but moved to France, which is why you were accepted there instead of here. You and your family have come to visit Ron's family, and you have decided that, instead of staying at home the entire time, that you would rather visit your cousin and his friends," Hermione continued. "You arrived today, in the morning, and spent the morning with us, going around the grounds."  
  
"All right," Callen said doubtfully. "What if someone asks me a question that I don't know the answer to?"  
  
"Make it up, of course," Ron replied.  
  
"What if it's about your family?" Callen persisted.  
  
"Make it up, of course," Harry repeated.  
  
"Well, what if they know the answer? And what I tell them is wrong?"  
  
"Just don't talk to anyone, then," Ron said. "It can't be that hard, can it?"  
  
A/N (btw, what the heck does that mean? I never really know, but other people put that, so…but anyway) Sorry if it's taking me a while to post the chapters, anyone who's reading. I'm kinda grounded at the moment, so I can't really get on the net too much. Please read and review! Thanks! 


	4. Just Keep On Going

Disclaimer: (I just figured out that I should do one of these things.lol.I'm a smart kid, aren't I) I own nothing you recognize, unless for some strange reason you recognize Callen, Ocenian, and the myriod, and I can't think of anything else that I've invented that I stuck in here. But if you don't recognize something, it's probably mine. Anything else is J. K. Rowling's, not mine. I do, however, own your mind.just kidding (heh heh)  
  
It did, however, turn out to be harder than Ron thought. So many people wanted to know who this strange new girl wearing blue was, that Callen couldn't avoid talking to them. Especially Malfoy, who seemed to smell a rat and pestered Callen as much as he could.  
  
"Hey, Weasley number two," he yelled while they were at dinner, a week after Callen had arrived.  
  
Callen, who was wearing borrowed robes of Hermione's, sighed and rested her head in her hands.  
  
"What do you want, Draco?" she asked.  
  
"Malfoy, leave my cousin alone," Ron snapped.  
  
"Don't like me talking to her, do you, Weasel?" Malfoy asked. His cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, sniggered. "Are you afraid that I might hurt her by talking to her?" he added, smirking.  
  
"More like you'll hurt her by looking at her," Harry jumped in. Callen groaned.  
  
"I can fight my own battles, thank you very much," she said, standing. She walked over to the Slytherin table, where Malfoy sat. "What is it, Draco?"  
  
"I was wondering where, exactly, in France you lived," he said, smirking at her.  
  
"Why did you want to know that?" she asked, somewhat nervously.  
  
"Just curious," Draco said, grinning at Crabbe and Goyle, who grinned stupidly back.  
  
"Why does it matter where I live?" Callen asked, avoiding his gaze.  
  
"I just want to know. Is that a bad thing?"  
  
Yes, Callen wanted to say. Yes, it was a very bad thing. Instead, she said "Um, I'm going to go finish eating." She hurried back to the Gryffindor table. "Guys," she said in a low voice. "I think Malfoy's catching on, or something."  
  
"What makes you think that?" Ron asked.  
  
"Well, he keeps asking me things that I would know if I really was your cousin, and that I wouldn't know if I wasn't," she explained.  
  
"Malfoy's just being a jerk, just ignore him," Harry reassured her.  
  
"I don't know." she said, staring off into space.  
  
"Anyway, did you enjoy your first week of school?" Hermione asked, changing the subject.  
  
"It's different than what I'm used to, but it's fun," Callen said, sitting. She stared at her plate of peas, mashed potatoes, and beef stew. "Ugh," she said, pushing it away.  
  
"What's wrong with your food?" Hermione asked anxiously. "You don't think that the house-elves have started a revolt, do you?"  
  
"Why would they, Hermione? I thought you learned your lesson in our fourth year," Ron complained. Hermione wasn't listening.  
  
"I'll need to make more buttons, and get more people to join," she rattled on.  
  
"What's she talking about?" Callen whispered to Harry.  
  
"S.P.E.W.," Harry whispered back. "It's something she started in our fourth year to gain rights for house-elves."  
  
"Riiiight," Callen said. "Hermione, nothing is wrong with my food. I'm just not hungry."  
  
"Oh."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Later that night, Callen sat in the common room all by herself, staring out a window. It was past midnight, and all the other Gryffindor students had gone to bed. She was wearing a short white nightgown, another borrowed item of Hermione's. She sat with her legs folded under her, just staring.  
  
She sat like that until about one, when a sudden loud noise startled her. She bit back a yell and turned to see Harry sitting at the bottom of the staircase, rubbing his head.  
  
"Ow," he muttered. He stood up and walked over to the fire, glancing around as he did. When he saw Callen, he was the one to bite back a scream. "What the bloody hell are you doing down here?" he yelled in a whisper. (Hope you know what I mean, people)  
  
"What are you doing down here?" she whispered back.  
  
"None of your business, that's what," he said. He walked over to her, crossed his arms, and glared at her.  
  
"None of your business, that's what," she repeated, crossing her arms and glaring at him.  
  
"Stop it, and get up to the dorm," Harry said, annoyed. He uncrossed his arms and pointed at the staircase. "Go," he added.  
  
"Get up to the dorm yourself," she said, standing her ground. "I'm not going up yet."  
  
"No, you," Harry said.  
  
"Not until you tell me what you're doing down here," they both said at the same time.  
  
"Stop it!" they said, once again, both at the same time.  
  
"Go to bed!" they said (I bet you can guess how - yep! You're right!) at the same time. This might've gone on for hours, but they were suddenly interrupted by a voice.  
  
"Harry?" a man called. "Are you there?"  
  
Callen shrieked. Harry quickly covered her mouth with his hand. "Shhh," he hissed. She nodded and he took away his hand. "I told you to go to the dorm," he said.  
  
"No way," she said, crossing her arms again. "I'm not leaving you down here by yourself when there are invisible people calling out your name."  
  
"He isn't invisible," Harry said, sighing. "I guess you can stay. Come with me."  
  
She followed him to in front of the fireplace. What she saw there nearly made her scream again.  
  
It was a human head, sitting in the flames.  
  
"Sirius, meet Callen," Harry said, kneeling. "Callen, this is my godfather."  
  
"Pleasure," Callen gasped out. She dropped to her knees as well.  
  
"Who are you?" Sirius asked suspiciously.  
  
"I'm Callen, like he said," she said, half annoyed.  
  
"What are you doing here?" he demanded. Harry sighed.  
  
"Sirius, this is the girl that I told you about, the one that we think is going to help us," Harry explained. "Her name is Callen." he trailed off, realizing that she had never told them what her last name was.  
  
"Callen." Sirius said, raising his eyebrows at her to indicate that he wanted to know her last name.  
  
"Just Callen," she said stupidly. "Am I supposed to have any other name?"  
  
"Most people have a last name," Sirius said. Turning to Harry, he said, trying not to let Callen hear him, "I don't trust her."  
  
"I don't trust you," Callen snapped, having heard him after all. "You're just a head sitting in the fireplace. Why should I trust you?"  
  
"I have a body, just it's easier for me to talk to Harry like this instead of coming to the castle because it's faster. And when I'm like this, all you can see is my head," Sirius explained. He was smiling now.  
  
"Are you laughing at me?" she demanded.  
  
"No, I'm not," Sirius said, still smiling. "You have a perfectly good reason for not trusting me. I was in prison for the murder of Harry's parents for twelve years. Then I escaped."  
  
Callen's mouth dropped open, and she quickly got up and backed away, frightened. "You.you killed his parents?" she gasped.  
  
Harry stood up and went over to her. "No, he didn't. He was just blamed for it." Seeing the doubtful look on her face, he quickly added, "I'll explain later."  
  
He led her back to the fire, and they both sat down again.  
  
"Anyway, Harry, we need to talk about what's going on here," Sirius said. "Has anything suspicious happened lately?"  
  
"Not really," Harry said. "Everything's going pretty much normal for here."  
  
"Well, everything isn't normal outside of Hogwarts," Sirius replied grimly.  
  
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.  
  
"Voldemort's got some new followers. No one knows who they are, but they aren't pure wizard. And he's killing more people," Sirius said grimly.  
  
"So.what are we supposed to do?" Harry asked.  
  
"Keep doing what you're already doing," Sirius told him. "Just keep on going."  
  
(A/N [someone please tell me what that means.] sorry about the chapters being so short. Just if I make them short, I can post them faster, so.they're short. Please please PLEASE review! I'll cry if you don't! [not seriously, but if it makes people review it, why not] thanks!) 


	5. Memories And Detention

Disclaimer: Once again, I own nothing you recognize. Well, by now I guess I do own some of the stuff you recognize, because since I'm all the way in the fifth chapter, if I mention Callen in here, you're going to recognize her, so…;) I think I'll shut up now. (Oh yeah, I finally figured out what A/N means…attention! I'm so smart…lol) anyway, if you see something that you don't recognize, you've either slept through my story or it's something new that I added that belongs to me. The End.  
  
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Callen tried to keep on going as normally as they could. It was hard, however, with Malfoy popping up all over the place and demanding to know the little facts about Callen.  
  
Malfoy wasn't the only one they were having trouble with. Colin was extremely excited to be in on the secret about Callen, and had to be continually silenced with a Silencing Spell to get him to shut up and not spill the secret.  
  
Snape didn't seem to be helpful, either. One day in Potions, he gave Callen a detention just for dropping her borrowed wand. She stormed into the common room later that night, fuming.  
  
"I swear, if I hadn't promised you I would stay, I would go home right now," she yelled to the other three, who were sitting next to the fire. A couple of the other students gave her strange looks.  
  
Ron quickly attempted to save the situation. "Look, Aunt Emmy told you that you'd have a rough time at Hogwarts since you don't know anyone," he said.  
  
Callen quickly caught on. "I'm sorry. It's just so different from Beauxbatons," she said. The students went back to their work. Callen sighed and sat down.  
  
"I'm sorry, guys," she said softly. "It's hard trying to pretend that I'm your cousin and not just plain old Callen. I miss my home, too," she said, looking upset.  
  
"Well, you've only got a few more weeks here before you can go back," Hermione reminded her.  
  
"Yeah," Callen said, still upset.  
  
"Callen, what's wrong?" Harry asked, sensing something besides what she was talking about.  
  
"Nothing, I'm fine," Callen lied. "I'm just kind of tired. I'm going to go lie down."  
  
She walked up the staircase into the dorm, and sat down on the extra bed that had been squeezed in between Hermione's and Parvati Patil's. She picked up her pillow and hugged it. Why was she feeling so torn about being here? She felt as if she was needed in Ocenian, but she desperately wanted to stay at Hogwarts.  
  
The door opened a crack, and Hermione peeked in. "Are you okay?" she asked concernedly.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, not even looking up from the dusty floor. She hugged her pillow tighter.  
  
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Yeah," she said again, still not looking up. Hermione walked over to her and sat down.  
  
"Callen, what's wrong? I know something is," she insisted.  
  
"Nothing is," Callen replied.  
  
"Is it something about your family?" Hermione asked softly.  
  
"Nothing is wrong!" Callen said loudly, hoping that the volume of her voice wouldn't betray the emotion she was attempting to suppress. It didn't.  
  
"It is something about your family, isn't it?" Hermione continued, almost as if she hadn't heard her.  
  
"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Callen demanded. "It isn't any of you're business!"  
  
"I'm sorry," Hermione said, slightly taken aback. "I didn't mean to pry."  
  
"Yeah, well, you are, and I don't really feel like telling you about it!" Callen said, turning her back to Hermione. Hermione stood and walked slowly out of the dorm.  
  
Callen buried her face in her pillow, trying to push back the memories. Finally, she gave up and let them all wash over her.  
  
She lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, not really seeing it. Instead, she saw the memories of when she was happy – when her parents knew that they had a daughter.  
  
They hadn't always been the way they were now – there had been a time when her mother would go outside and swim with her, and when her father would pick her up and carry her around on his shoulders. When they would go on picnics in the forest. When they would spend an hour each night, tucking her into bed. But when she turned fourteen two years ago, it had all changed.  
  
She had come home from swimming one day to find the maidservant in the kitchen, looking like she'd been slapped.  
  
"What's wrong, Kysha?" she had asked.  
  
Kysha had replied, "The Queen and King just came in and they were acting the most unlike themselves that I've ever seen. When I asked if something was wrong, they didn't even know who I was!" Kysha had been devastated, for she had been serving the royal family since she was ten – she had been twenty at the time.  
  
Callen, determined to find out for herself what was going on, had rushed up to her parents' room to find them exploring it like they had never seen it before.  
  
"Mother, Father, what's going on?" she had asked. They had stared straight past her.  
  
For the next two years, the same thing happened every day. At mealtime, they never even glanced at their daughter and never spoke a word to anyone but each other, and only talked in the old language that the ocean fairies had used, the language that no one else knew.  
  
Callen gave up on trying to get her parents' attention the year before, when the only thing that had happened was her father slapped her, then went back to talking to her mother. She had attempted to run away, but had been caught by Kysha and forced to come back.  
  
Then, when she had had the same dream as Harry, she had been excited to have her mother come in and ask if she was all right after she had screamed. But then, the next day at breakfast, her mother had been the same as before – distant and cold.  
  
Well, at least one of them is coming back with me, she thought.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
When Callen went back downstairs an hour earlier, she found Colin waiting at the foot of the stairs.  
  
"Snape sent me to tell you that he wants you for your detention," he said, his voice squeaking.  
  
"Right now?" she asked, dismayed.  
  
"Right now," he confirmed.  
  
She sighed, then crossed to the portrait hole, just as it opened. In walked Hermione, Ron, and Harry.  
  
"Are you all right?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Yeah," she replied.  
  
"Where are you going?" Harry asked.  
  
"Snape," she said, annoyed. "Detention."  
  
"Do you want us to come with you?" Ron asked.  
  
"No, I'll be fine," Callen said. "I'll see you later tonight. Wait up for me," she added as she walked past them.  
  
"Okay," they chorused.  
  
She walked down to the dungeons slowly, not really wanting to go to detention. But she couldn't avoid getting there eventually, and finally she was standing outside the doorway. She took a deep breath, then walked into the room.  
  
"Ah, yes, Miss Weasley," Snape said in an oily voice. "Sit down." He indicated the seat in front of his desk.  
  
Callen sat, edging the chair as far away from the desk as she possibly dared.  
  
"Now, to discuss what your detention shall be," Snape said in the same oily tone.  
  
"Sir, I don't even know why I got the detention," Callen burst out. "All I did was drop my wand!"  
  
"Causing a disturbance!" Snape snapped, his black eyes glinting. "For your detention, you will be cleaning all the dungeons tomorrow!"  
  
Callen was speechless. "That could take all weekend!" she finally protested.  
  
"Well then, I guess you'd better get started," Snape said, his voice oily again. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at Callen. She cringed, expecting him to curse her. Instead, he moved his wand a little to the right and conjured up a huge stone cauldron full of soapy water and a bucket with rags in it. He stood up and stalked out of the room.  
  
Callen waited for the door to slam shut before she let her anger out in a huge scream. When she finished screaming, she simply sat and stared at the cauldron and bucket for a few minutes. Then, with a sigh, she summoned one of the rags and walked over to the cauldron, dipped in the rag, and started scrubbing.  
  
She scrubbed for an hour before the door cracked open. Expecting it to be Snape, she quickly started scrubbing harder. She tried not to look at the door, so as to seem that she was totally absorbed in her work.  
  
"Oh, so now they're turning you into a scullery maid," a familiar voice said. Despite herself, Callen turned to look at the speaker. It was Draco Malfoy. He stood leaning against the wall by the door with his arms crossed across his chest.  
  
"It's not really your business what they do to me," Callen said shortly because she was out of breath. She kept scrubbing.  
  
"You know, you could just use a spell to make the rags do all the work," Malfoy suggested.  
  
"I know," Callen lied. "I just don't want Snape to come in and catch me."  
  
"He won't," Malfoy reassured. "He's in his office."  
  
"What makes you so sure that he won't come back if he's in his office?"  
  
"He just won't, trust me. I have gone here longer than you, and I'm one of his favorites, so if I were you, I would trust me."  
  
Callen sighed, then put down her rag. "All right, tell me the spell."  
  
"I will, but there's a catch," Draco warned.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"You have to stay here and talk to me. And answer whatever questions I ask you."  
  
She sighed again. She really just wanted to go back up to the dorm and sleep, but talking to Draco beat cleaning the dungeons. "I don't care. Tell me the spell, please."  
  
Draco told her the spell, then sat down in one of the desks. Callen cast the spell, then glanced over at Draco, who indicated the chair across from his. She sat.  
  
"First question," Malfoy said. "How come you never answer my questions?"  
  
"I don't know," Callen said uncomfortably. She hoped that she would be able to answer the rest of his questions easier than that.  
  
"You have to know. Why?"  
  
"Because I don't feel like answering them," she said, rolling her eyes.  
  
"Okay. Why did you decide to come to Hogwarts instead of staying home?" he asked for his second question.  
  
"Because I haven't seen my cousin for over a year, and I kind of wanted to see him," she made up.  
  
"But what about your other cousins? The ones the already graduated?" he asked.  
  
"They're all working," Callen lied quickly. "Besides, Ron is my age, and we were like best friends when we were little, till I moved. I'd rather see him than Percy."  
  
"Oh. Why don't you like me?"  
  
Callen was speechless. "What?"  
  
"Why don't you like me?" he repeated. "You never even look at me."  
  
"I never said I didn't like you," Callen insisted. "I just don't really look at people that much, because I don't like getting strange looks."  
  
"Why do people give you strange looks?" he asked.  
  
"Because I'm different from them," she said, not really thinking about what she was saying.  
  
"How are you so different?" Malfoy asked, his eyes glittering.  
  
"I'm a fairy princess. How different can you get?" she asked sarcastically.  
  
"I knew it!" Malfoy said triumphantly. "I knew you weren't really related to that weasel!"  
  
Callen sat, aghast. She couldn't believe she had just betrayed herself and her friends. She hung her head.  
  
At that moment, the door swung open and in walked Harry. He saw Malfoy grinning from ear to ear, Callen sitting with her head in her hands, and exploded.  
  
"Malfoy, what did you do to her?" he demanded, pulling out his wand. Immediately Callen leapt up.  
  
"Harry, he didn't do anything, it's all my fault," she said, trying to grab his arm.  
  
"I didn't do a thing, she just spilled your little secret," Malfoy said, his eyes glinting.  
  
"You did what?" Harry said, pulling his arm away from Callen, who had finally managed to catch it so he wouldn't curse Malfoy.  
  
"He was asking me questions, and I forgot what I was doing, and I told him I'm a fairy princess," Callen said, desperately hoping he wouldn't hate her.  
  
Much to her relief, Harry simply pointed his wand at Malfoy. "Obliviate!" he yelled, wiping Malfoy's memory. Instantly, Malfoy stopped smiling.  
  
"What am I doing near you?" he snarled at Harry. He stormed out of the room.  
  
"Good one," Callen said. Harry turned to her.  
  
"Why the hell were you even talking to him?" he demanded.  
  
"Why not? He hasn't done anything to me," Callen retorted.  
  
"He's scum! He tries to get me into trouble!" Harry yelled.  
  
"So, he hasn't done anything to me!" Callen yelled back.  
  
Harry glared at her, then turned and stormed out of the dungeon. Callen waited for the door to slam shut, then let her anger out in a huge scream. Again.  
  
(The plot thickens…hee hee, I always wanted to say that…not really, I lied) 


	6. The Glory

Disclaimer: see previous chapter. Please. (Except change it to sixth chapter instead of fifth.) The term "glory of unicorns" belongs to Bruce Coville, not J.K. Rowling or myself. And darn, I thought A/N meant attention…well, at least it did in my typing class. Oh well…now review my story! Please. (And Michelle, dogs rule. And you know it.)  
  
As soon as she finished screaming, the door opened again.  
  
"When is this going to end?" she said under her breath.  
  
"Callen?" Hermione peeked into the dungeon. "What happened? First Malfoy storms out, then Harry runs out looking even angrier than I've ever seen him, then you scream…what's going on?"  
  
"I want to go home," Callen said, finally breaking down and crying.  
  
"Why?" Hermione asked, crossing to her. "What did Malfoy do?"  
  
"It wasn't him," she sobbed. She sat down in one of the desks.  
  
"What did Harry do, then?" Hermione asked, sitting next to her.  
  
"He was yelling at me for just talking to Draco," Callen explained, attempting to dry her tears.  
  
"Why were you talking to Malfoy?" Hermione asked quietly.  
  
"Because, he gave me a spell to clean the dungeons faster, but he said that if he gave it to me, I had to stay here and talk to him and answer all his questions."  
  
"What did he ask you?"  
  
"Um, why I never answered his questions, why I decided to come to Hogwarts, why I didn't like him, and how am I so different," Callen said after a pause.  
  
"And this got Harry mad…how?" Hermione asked doubtfully.  
  
"I accidentally told Draco I was a fairy princess and Harry found out," Callen said quickly, holding up a hand as if to shield herself from Hermione.  
  
"What did Harry do?" Hermione asked slowly.  
  
"He erased Draco's memory, then started yelling at me for talking to him. But Draco hasn't done anything to me!" Callen added.  
  
"I know he hasn't. But Callen, you have to understand that Harry and Draco are enemies. They hate each other! Malfoy will do anything to get Harry expelled," Hermione explained.  
  
Callen's head was spinning. "I want to go home," she murmured.  
  
"I think it's time you did," Hermione agreed. "Come on, let's go."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The forest was dark outside the pool of light that came from the lantern Hermione was holding. Callen wasn't so sure that she wanted to find the myriod right now, when it was so dark out, but wasn't going to tell Hermione that.  
  
"Are you sure that it was this way?" she asked, instead.  
  
"I'm fairly sure," Hermione said confidently. However, her face betrayed her tone of voice.  
  
"You have no idea where we are, do you," Callen said. She shivered.  
  
"Not a clue," Hermione admitted.  
  
"Well, do you think we'd be able to turn around and get back out?"  
  
"Maybe," Hermione said uncertainly.  
  
"Well, let's try it," Callen suggested.  
  
They turned around and started walking back the way they came. Unfortunately, they only succeeded in getting even more lost.  
  
"Well, that didn't work," Hermione said shortly, because she was out of breath.  
  
"Nope."  
  
The two sat down at the foot of a huge oak tree.  
  
"Wait, I think I see a light up there!" Hermione said happily, scrambling to her feet and knocking over the lantern, which went out.  
  
"Do you think it's the castle?" Callen asked hopefully.  
  
"No, it's too close for it to be the castle. It might be Hagrid's hut, though," Hermione said, going toward it. After a second she turned around. "It isn't his hut, either. It's too white of a light to be Hagrid's hut."  
  
"So what is it?"  
  
"I don't know. Should we go toward it, or stay here?" Hermione asked.  
  
"What if it's that Voldemort person?" Callen asked, half afraid.  
  
"Then I guess we'll just have to be careful," Hermione said slowly.  
  
"Okay," Callen said uncertainly. She stood and crossed to Hermione.  
  
Together, the two girls walked cautiously toward the light. After a few minutes, they reached the edge of a clearing and crouched down. In the clearing were –  
  
"Unicorns!" Callen gasped. There were at least a dozen of them, all glowing brightly.  
  
"I never knew there were this many in here," Hermione said in a hushed tone.  
  
"It's a glory of unicorns," Callen said softly.  
  
"A glory? What's that?" Hermione asked.  
  
"It's a group of them," Callen explained.  
  
"Oh. I've never heard of them described like that," Hermione whispered.  
  
"They're gorgeous," Callen said. "Absolutely gorgeous."  
  
"Shh," Hermione said. "We don't want to scare them off."  
  
"They're so beautiful," Callen whispered.  
  
At this point one of the unicorns looked up, as if it had heard the girls. It whinnied, tossing its beautiful head. The other unicorns looked up and in the direction of Callen and Hermione.  
  
"Uh-oh," Hermione said.  
  
"I think they heard us," Callen said.  
  
"I think so, too."  
  
"What should we do? Stay here?"  
  
"No, we should get away so they don't hurt us!"  
  
"Yeah, right! We're lost! They'll find us no matter what we do!"  
  
"Well, what do you propose? Walking right into them?"  
  
"It's a little too late to do either thing!" Callen said, looking up.  
  
"Why?" Hermione asked, staring at her.  
  
Callen pointed upward. Standing above them, looking down curiously, was a large unicorn.  
  
"Uh-oh."  
  
The unicorn neighed, still looking down at them with a curious expression. Callen tentatively reached up and touched the unicorn's nose. The unicorn nudged her hand gently. Callen laughed.  
  
"I think he's trying to tell us that it's all right," she whispered to Hermione.  
  
"How do you know it's a he?" Hermione asked.  
  
Callen shrugged. "I just do," she answered. She stood and started petting the unicorn.  
  
"Be careful," Hermione warned.  
  
"I am," Callen replied. She stroked the unicorn's velvety nose.  
  
The unicorn knelt down, then looked at her meaningfully.  
  
"I think he wants me to ride him," Callen whispered excitedly.  
  
"Just be careful!" Hermione said.  
  
The other unicorns looked on curiously while Callen mounted. When she was seated, her unicorns stood and started trotting around the clearing. One of the gold-colored foals neighed happily.  
  
The unicorn stopped by the edge of the clearing opposite Hermione and nudged another one of the adult unicorns. Then, he trotted back to Hermione, with Callen still on his back. The unicorn he had nudged followed.  
  
"Hermione, I think that he wants you to get on this one," Callen said excitedly.  
  
Hermione stood up uncertainly. The second unicorn knelt down, touching the tip of its horn to the ground.  
  
"Come on, Hermione, get on," Callen urged.  
  
Hermione timidly climbed on the unicorn, who stood up.  
  
"Now what?" she asked.  
  
"I don't know. But isn't this great? We're riding unicorns!"  
  
"I guess," Hermione said, unconvinced.  
  
Suddenly, the unicorn Callen was on reared and she fell to the ground, where she lay, unmoving.  
  
"Callen!" Hermione shrieked, trying to get off her unicorn without falling herself. Finally, she managed to dismount and ran over to her friend, who still hadn't moved.  
  
The unicorn knelt down again, near Callen, and placed his horn on her forehead. Hermione, too frightened to try and get the unicorn away, simply stared.  
  
After a minute, the unicorn, using his horn, lifted Callen onto his back. Hermione sat on the ground still, watching Callen. Her fiery red hair mingled with the unicorn's mane, giving the impression that the unicorn was bleeding. Hermione breathed in, a shuddery breath. She saw Callen's limp figure do the same and leapt to her feet.  
  
"What's going on?" Callen sat up, looking dazed.  
  
Hermione rushed to Callen's side and explained it all. "I never thought that unicorns could be so cruel," she finished.  
  
"I don't think he did it to be cruel," Callen mused. "I think he was trying to do something."  
  
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.  
  
"I mean, I think he wanted me to understand him," Callen said.  
  
"Understand him?"  
  
"Yeah. Look at him," she said, rubbing the unicorn's neck.  
  
Indeed, the unicorn looked as if he had something to tell them. Callen patted the unicorn on the nose, then slid off his back.  
  
"Well, how does he expect you to understand him?" Hermione asked.  
  
"I don't know," Callen said, resting her hand on his neck again. Quickly, she pulled away, with an astonished look in her eyes. "I heard him," she said. "He just spoke to me."  
  
"I didn't hear anything," Hermione said.  
  
"Well, I did," Callen insisted. "He said my name!" She placed her hand on his neck again.  
  
"Callen," the unicorn said to her. "You need to be more cautious."  
  
"He's doing it again," Callen said.  
  
"I don't hear anything," Hermione claimed.  
  
"Beware, child," the unicorn continued. "He knows! You may think he doesn't, but he knows where you are. He knows you. He knows…"  
  
The unicorns disappeared. 


	7. Arguments and an Apology

Disclaimer: yada yada, blah blah. I own anything you don't recognize, anything you do is J.K.'s, the term "glory of unicorns" is Bruce Coville's, blahdiddy blah. The End. Now read my story and quit wasting time reading the disclaimers! (  
  
"Well, if that wasn't one of the weirdest things to happen to me, I don't know what is," Callen declared, gazing around the now dim clearing.  
  
"Well, weird or not, we're still lost," Hermione reminded her.  
  
"Yeah, I know. I wonder what the unicorn meant," Callen mused.  
  
"What did he say?"  
  
"That 'he' knows where I am, that 'he' knows me. But who the heck is 'he'?" Callen said desperately.  
  
"I don't know," Hermione said. "Is that all that he said?"  
  
"He said that I needed to be more cautious," Callen said impatiently. "But who was he talking about?"  
  
"I think he meant Voldemort," Hermione said quietly, after a pause.  
  
"But how would Voldemort know who I am?" Callen asked, bewildered.  
  
"I don't know," Hermione said. "But I do know this – if he does know who you are, you're in trouble.  
  
"And how do I get out of trouble?"  
  
"You can't, unless you kill Voldemort. Or you die."  
  
"Great. So basically, I'm stuck."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"Sure you are."  
  
"I am. Now let's get out of here, please."  
  
"Okay." Callen started walking toward the opposite edge.  
  
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked, hurrying after her.  
  
"Out. Where else?" Callen asked.  
  
"But we don't know which way out is," Hermione reminded her.  
  
"It's this way," Callen said. "The unicorn told me while I was passed out."  
  
"Well, it can't really get us more lost than we are already," Hermione told herself. "All right."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
After making their way steadily for ten minutes, they saw the edge of the forest.  
  
"Finally!" Callen said, exasperated.  
  
"Look, there's the castle!" Hermione said, pointing.  
  
"We'll just find the myriod tomorrow," Callen said. "When it's lighter out.  
  
"Yeah," Hermione agreed. "Hopefully we won't get lost tomorrow.  
  
They walked up to the castle slowly, still tired from their encounter with the unicorns.  
  
"I still can't believe that happened," Hermione said.  
  
"You can't believe it??? I can't believe it!!" Callen said. "I was the one that got knocked out by a unicorn and he started talking to me!!"  
  
"True," Hermione admitted. "But I was watching. How do you think I felt watching you, lying on the ground like you were dead?"  
  
"Did I really look like I was dead?"  
  
"Yes! It was scary," Hermione said, shuddering. "I mean, I've seen Harry looking like he was about to die, and that was scary enough! But…in a way, I'm closer to you than I am to them, so…" she trailed off.  
  
"So…what?" Callen prompted. "What?"  
  
"Well, it was worse seeing you lying on the ground like that then it is seeing Harry lying in a hospital bed knocked out," Hermione admitted.  
  
"Well, I'm fine now," Callen said, touched by what Hermione said. "Let's get up to the dorm."  
  
"Good idea."  
  
The two made the climb to Gryffindor Tower, where they found Ron waiting anxiously for them.  
  
"Where've you been?" he demanded as soon as they walked in. "Harry's been looking all over for you!"  
  
"He has?" Hermione said uninterestedly.  
  
"Really," Callen said absentmindedly.  
  
"YES, he has, REALLY," Ron said angrily. "He's going to Dumbledore right now to tell him that you two are missing!"  
  
"Is he?" Callen gasped. "Great," she muttered. The last thing she wanted was to get the headmaster that she didn't even know involved in it.  
  
"Oh no," Hermione said, apparently thinking the same thing. "We've got to go find him!" She tore out of the room.  
  
"I'll stay here," Callen yelled after her. She sank down on one of the chairs. "What time is it?"  
  
"Only 1:30 – AM!" Ron yelled. "You two have been missing for five hours!"  
  
"We were out in the forest," Callen said dully.  
  
"What in the bloody hell were you doing in the forest at night?" he demanded.  
  
"I wanted to go home," Callen explained. "We were trying to find the myriod and we got lost."  
  
"Why did you want to go home?" Ron asked in a gentler tone, sitting down.  
  
"Because, I'm not doing anything good here," she said miserably.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"All I succeed in doing is getting detention and revealing my secret!"  
  
"So what? You've only been here a few weeks. There's no way you can be an expert at our school," Ron said, trying to comfort her.  
  
"And Harry's furious at me because I was talking to Draco," she continued, yawning and rubbing her eyes to hide tears.  
  
"You were talking to Malfoy?? Why??"  
  
"Why does everyone seem so amazed that I was talking to him?" she said desperately.  
  
"Because he's just plain evil," Ron explained.  
  
"He hasn't done anything to me!"  
  
"Anyway, keep going about what happened," Ron said hastily. "You couldn't've been lost for five hours just walking around. What else happened?"  
  
"We found a glory," Callen said, smiling at the memory of the beautiful unicorns.  
  
"A what?"  
  
"A glory of unicorns," Callen said. "It's a group of unicorns. In this one, there were at least a dozen."  
  
"Wow. I've only seen a couple unicorns, and never more than one at the same time," Ron said, amazed. "Well, except for that time Hagrid caught two foals."  
  
At this point, Hermione burst into the common room, followed by Harry, followed by Dumbledore. Callen's heart sank at the sight of Dumbledore.  
  
"Callen!" Harry cried. "There you are!"  
  
"Yeah, here I am," Callen said unhappily.  
  
"Are you all right? Hermione said that you were knocked out by some stupid unicorn," he said anxiously.  
  
"I'm fine," Callen insisted.  
  
"I brought Dumbledore so you could tell him what happened," Harry continued. "Hermione told me before I got to his office, and we decided that he should know."  
  
Dumbledore looked at Callen through his half-moon spectacles. "Would you mind telling me what happened to you and Miss Granger while you were in the forest?"  
  
"No, sir," Callen replied dully. As fast as she could, she told everything, starting from the very beginning when Colin found the myriod to the unicorn speaking to her. When she finished, Dumbledore simply sat and thought for a while.  
  
"Don't go home yet, child," was all he said. "Don't go home yet." With that, he turned and left.  
  
"Great, some advice he gives," Callen muttered. "So, what do we do now?"  
  
"I'm hungry," Ron said. "I say we sneak down to the kitchen and get something to eat."  
  
"I could do with something to eat as well," Harry said, grinning. "Girls?"  
  
"Well, we haven't been to the kitchen in a while," Hermione said. "We might as well pay Dobby and Winky a visit."  
  
"Who?" Callen asked.  
  
"House-elves," Harry said. "Dobby tried to kill me, and Winky hates me."  
  
"That's nice," Callen said faintly.  
  
"Well? Let's go," Ron said impatiently. "Are you coming, Callen?"  
  
"Yeah, why not," Callen said, standing. All she really wanted to do was curl up on her bed and sleep, but she could deal with getting something to eat.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Callen," Harry said as they reached the Great Hall.  
  
Hermione and Ron were squabbling over which door led to the hallway that the kitchen was in.  
  
"Callen," he repeated.  
  
Callen turned around. "What?"  
  
"I'm sorry I was so rude earlier. I didn't mean to make you want to go home," Harry apologized.  
  
"That's all right, it wasn't you that made me want to go home," Callen said, not exactly meeting his gaze.  
  
"Liar."  
  
"All right, all right, it was you," Callen admitted. She glanced over at Hermione and Ron, who were opening doors at random. "But it wasn't just you. Everything was adding up."  
  
"What do you mean?" he asked.  
  
She told him about her life at home, and how she couldn't help hoping that when she went back home, her parents would be back to normal.  
  
"Is that why you wanted one of us to go back with you?" Harry asked. "To see if something could be done about your parents?"  
  
Callen nodded. "I just want them back," she said sadly. She couldn't help it. She started crying.  
  
"Aw, don't worry, Callen," Harry said. "It'll be all right."  
  
When she didn't stop crying, he reached over and hugged her. His sudden movement attracted the attention of Hermione and Ron, who were still arguing.  
  
"Look," Hermione whispered, shutting the door she had just opened. She smiled.  
  
"Callen, it's all right, we'll find the door any second," Ron said, mistaking the reason she was crying to be that she was hungry.  
  
"That's not why I'm crying, you dolt," Callen sniffed.  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Have you found the door yet?" Harry asked. He still had one arm over Callen's shoulders.  
  
"No, but we're getting close," Hermione said. "Wait, now I remember! It's that one!" She pointed.  
  
"All right!" Ron cheered. "Time for food!"  
  
"I believe, Mr. Weasley, that it is time you and your friends got yourselves back up to Gryffindor Tower, not time for food," a cold voice said from behind them.  
  
"Uh-oh," Hermione muttered.  
  
The four turned around, dreading what they knew they would see.  
  
Snape glared at them. "Go," he said, pointing to the stairs.  
  
The four trudged toward the stairs slowly.  
  
"Damn it," Ron muttered under his breath.  
  
"Miss Weasley," Snape called from behind them. "I don't believe you ever finished your detention. You will do it tomorrow, all day."  
  
Callen's heart sank. Tomorrow was Saturday, and Callen had planned on sleeping in, then simply lying around the common room, maybe playing Quidditch with Harry and the rest. Now she had to spend the whole day in the dungeons.  
  
"Sir, why did she even receive a detention?" Harry asked. "She didn't do anything wrong."  
  
"She caused a disturbance, Potter," Snape snapped. "Now, if you'll excuse me, get to bed!" He stormed out of the hall.  
  
"Great," Callen muttered, trying not to cry again.  
  
"Don't worry about it, Callen," Harry said. "We'll help you."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Damn it, I'm still hungry," Ron complained. 


	8. Stupid Malfoy and Another Argument

Disclaimer: el mono se duerme ronca ronca se duerme en la calle ronca ronca se despiertan a la vaca ronca ronca se despiertan enojada ronca ronca agarra un vaso de agua lo tira en la cara el mono grita soy mono porbre ay caramba no tengo una casa ay caramba no tengo pantalones ay caramba zapatos ni corbata la vaca sale llorando entonces su comprando una casa ay caramba para ti para ti mono para ti para mi para mi vaca para mi si si si si tienes su propria casaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Okay, for those of you who are wondering, no I have NOT finally cracked, it's a song we sang in my Spanish class and I get it stuck in my head every single frickin minute of the day. And my computer says that I'm typing at a 12th grade level! HA!  
  
The next day, Callen woke up early and did what she always did - went for a swim. That was where Harry found her an hour later, swimming in the lake.  
  
"How can you do that?" he called to her from the beach.  
  
"It isn't that cold," she called back. "You should try swimming in it sometime."  
  
"Believe me, I have, and I don't want to again!"  
  
"Suit yourself." She swam to where she could touch and struggled out of the water. She shivered. "Ooh, it got cold!" She grabbed the towel Harry held out for her.  
  
"It's been cold," he said. "It just got windier."  
  
"Oh. So, what are you doing today?" she asked, wrapping up in the towel.  
  
"Staying warm, that's for sure."  
  
"Dry?"  
  
"I planned on it, why?"  
  
She grabbed the ends of her hair and flicked water at him.  
  
"Hey!" He kicked sand at her.  
  
"No fair!" She stuck her tongue out at him.  
  
"Why isn't that fair?" Harry wanted to know.  
  
"Because, I said it isn't."  
  
"That's not a good reason."  
  
"I know."  
  
"So give me a good reason."  
  
"I did."  
  
"Did not." "Did too."  
  
"Not."  
  
"Too."  
  
"Well, look, if it isn't the squabbling babies," a boy drawled.  
  
Callen and Harry turned to face Draco Malfoy.  
  
"What do you want, Draco?" Callen asked, as politely as she could manage.  
  
"Go away, Malfoy," Harry said, not even trying to be polite.  
  
"I don't think I will," Draco said, yawning. Harry noticed that he didn't have his "bodyguards" with him.  
  
"Really? And why is that?" Harry asked.  
  
"Because I don't want to," Draco replied, sounding bored.  
  
"And why don't you want to?" Callen asked, shivering again.  
  
"Because I wanted to talk to you," Draco replied, sounding a little less bored.  
  
"Well then, why did you want to talk to me?" she asked, wrapping her towel tighter.  
  
"Because. I know that that prat over there erased my memory after I finally talked to you," he explained.  
  
Harry looked at Callen nervously.  
  
"And by the way."he said, smirking. "That memory spell? It wore off. I remember everything you told me, Callen."  
  
Callen hit her forehead and dragged Harry a few feet down the beach, away from Malfoy. "Now what?" she asked him.  
  
"I'd say knock him out, but I don't want to get expelled," he replied angrily. "The Dursley's wouldn't like that."  
  
"Can they expel me?" she asked.  
  
"I don't think so, but they can tell you you have to leave," he said.  
  
"Darn, there goes that plan," she said, disappointed.  
  
"May I suggest something?" Malfoy called to them.  
  
"Should we listen to him?"  
  
"No way!"  
  
"Let's at least hear him out," she pleaded. "Maybe he'll work with us instead of against us."  
  
"Whatever."  
  
"Tell us what you think, Draco," Callen said. "Please," she added.  
  
"Maybe you should go home, Callen," Draco said. "If you stay here, you'll only be forced to join him or be killed, along with Potter, Dumbledore, your 'cousin', the Mudblood, and all the rest."  
  
"You take that back, Malfoy! Take it back now!" Harry threatened.  
  
"Take what back?" Draco said, feigning innocence.  
  
"You know perfectly well what you're to take back!" Harry yelled. "Hermione isn't a Mudblood!"  
  
"What's a Mudblood?" Callen asked.  
  
"Take it back!" he yelled again.  
  
"I don't believe I will," Malfoy said, yawning again.  
  
"Draco, maybe you should just take it back," Callen said uneasily. She didn't like the way Harry looked.  
  
"I'm not taking anything back," Draco told her.  
  
Harry was glowering. Callen grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away. She succeeded in pulling him a few feet, but then fell to the ground. He nearly fell, but caught himself. Malfoy laughed hysterically. Harry started forward, almost as if he wanted to fight Malfoy, but thought better of it and pulled Callen to her feet.  
  
"See you around," Draco called over his shoulder. He walked triumphantly up to the castle.  
  
"Great, now I've got him telling me to leave, and the headmaster telling me to stay. Which am I supposed to do?" she asked, genuinely confused.  
  
"Whichever one seems right to you," Harry replied, brushing sand off his arm. "Let's get up to the castle."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Once they were in the common room, Callen remembered something.  
  
"Dang it," she said, hitting her forehead again.  
  
"What?" the others asked.  
  
"Snape - he said I had to finish my detention today!" She sank down into one of the chairs by the fire, not caring that she was wet.  
  
"Don't go," Ron advised. "It's not like he'd remember."  
  
"He isn't ancient, Ron," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "He won't forget."  
  
"So what do I do, go to detention?"  
  
"No, we'll tell Dumbledore what happened," Harry said from another chair, which he was lying on. He opened his eyes. "Dumbledore will get you out of it."  
  
"Okay," Callen said, a little unsure. "Would you go talk to him? I want to change out of my suit."  
  
"Okay," Harry said, closing his eyes again.  
  
Callen went upstairs and into the girls' dorm. Harry, despite saying he would go talk to Dumbledore, didn't move.  
  
"Harry, you said you'd go talk to Dumbledore," Hermione reminded him.  
  
"I know." He didn't move.  
  
"So go talk to him!" Hermione threw a cushion at him. He blocked it without even opening his eyes.  
  
"Hermione, I've gotten used to you. I can tell when you're going to throw something at me, so you might as well stop."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
After Callen had showered and changed into borrowed clothes of Hermione's, she went back downstairs to see a mountain of cushions where Harry had been sitting and no one else in sight.  
  
"I guess everyone's at Hogsmeade or out," she mused, going over to the chair she had been sitting in. "Hey!"  
  
For suddenly, a cushion went flying through the air and smacked her.  
  
"What the heck was that?" She stood and walked over to the pile of cushions. "Is there anyone in there?"  
  
"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" Harry reached up from under his mountain of cushions (all thrown at him by Hermione) and grabbed Callen's arm.  
  
"Hey, let go!" she said, giggling. "You aren't very scary, you know."  
  
"I know." He let go of her arm and started pelting her with pillows.  
  
"Hey!" She started throwing them back at him. "I thought you said you'd go talk to Dumbledore for me!"  
  
"I know, but Ron and Hermione left before I could," he excused himself. "So I decided to let them talk to him for me for you."  
  
"Right," Callen said, blocking more pillows. "I didn't think that there were this many pillows in here!"  
  
"There aren't. Hermione conjured them up to throw at me."  
  
"Why did she throw them at you?" she asked.  
  
"Because she's mad at me," Harry replied easily.  
  
"Why is she mad at you?" Callen asked, amazed.  
  
"She says I'm acting different than I did before you came here, and in a way, I guess I am," he said thoughtfully. Neither said anything for a few seconds. He sat up, knocking the last pillow onto the ground. "I guess I should go talk to Dumbledore now," he said finally.  
  
"Yeah, sounds like a good idea," she said, rolling her eyes. They headed toward the portrait hole right as it opened and Hermione, Ron, and Dumbledore entered. Callen shrank back slightly, still a little afraid of the headmaster.  
  
"Oh, hello, Professor," Harry said. "I was just going to talk to you."  
  
"About your friend, am I correct?" Dumbledore said, his eyes on Callen.  
  
"Yes, sir." Harry looked to his side for Callen, then looked behind himself, where Callen stood. He grabbed her arm and dragged her forward.  
  
"What seems to be the problem?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
Nobody said anything. Harry nudged Callen.  
  
"Say something," he whispered.  
  
"What am I supposed to say?" Callen whispered back.  
  
"Perhaps you could tell me why Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley asked me to come here to talk to you," the headmaster suggested.  
  
"Well, you see, sir," Callen began after a meaningful look from Harry. She proceeded to tell him the incident with Malfoy. "So what should I do?" she asked when she finished.  
  
"I believe that I will have to speak to Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore said decisively. "You should know that if something very odd wasn't happening outside of this school, you would not be here," he added.  
  
"I know, sir," Callen said respectively.  
  
"I must admit, I was skeptical when Mr. Potter here came to me and told me about the myriod and finding you," he continued.  
  
"Wait a second," Callen cut in. She turned to Harry. "I thought that we agreed we weren't going to tell anyone about me!"  
  
"He's the headmaster, you can't just not tell him when you want to do something!" Harry replied hotly.  
  
"I beg to differ!" Hermione said, glaring. "What about the Philosopher's Stone? And the Chamber of Secrets? And Sirius and Lupin and Wormtail? What about our fourth year? And last year?"  
  
"He knew about all that!" Harry said angrily.  
  
"Do I really want to know?" Callen asked Ron softly. Ron started to explain to her everything that Hermione and Harry were talking - or rather, yelling - about.  
  
"Why are you telling her?" Harry suddenly demanded. He wasn't very sure how he felt about having Callen know about his past.  
  
"There isn't anything wrong with her knowing, is there?" Ron asked.  
  
"Well, maybe I'm sick of you telling the whole bloody world about me!" Harry said furiously.  
  
"I don't tell the whole world about you!" Ron retorted. "I just thought that maybe since Callen's staying with us, she might deserve to know!"  
  
Hermione, Ron, and Harry started shouting at each other, all at the same time. Callen stared franticly from one to the next to the next. Dumbledore stood near the portrait hole, a worried expression on his face. He left silently, to go who knows where. (Actually, I know where, but you'll find out later.)  
  
Finally, Callen couldn't take it anymore.  
  
"Stop it!!!" she screamed. The three stopped arguing and yelling to look at her.  
  
"What?" Harry asked, annoyed.  
  
"Shut up! You three are best friends! You shouldn't be arguing like this!" Callen yelled.  
  
"Just stay out of it!" Harry yelled. Suddenly, he was furious with everyone, including Callen.  
  
"You know what, I've had enough of getting shoved around by you three and Draco and everyone else here!" she yelled, looking close to tears. "I have to get out of here," she said, running up the stairs. A few seconds later she reappeared, her hair pulled back and wearing Harry's other cloak that he had loaned her when she had first arrived.  
  
"Where are you going?" he demanded, stepping forward.  
  
"Just let her go," Ron said, pushing him back.  
  
"Callen, where are you going?" Hermione said shrilly. "You could get lost again, don't go into the forest!"  
  
"What's it matter to you?" Callen snapped. "You just want Harry to act the way he did before I was here, so maybe if I leave he'll go back to the way he was and you'll be happy!" She ran out the portrait hole and through the castle, out the front doors, and out into the fresh afternoon sunlight. 


	9. In the Forest

Disclaimer: Anything you don't recognize from the four Harry Potter books is mine. Anything you do recognize from the books is J.K. Rowling's. Thank you very much for the time that you have spent reading these stupid and idiotic things. That is, if you have read them. If you haven't read them, you're a smart person. The End (of this one).  
  
"I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!" Callen screamed into the forest. She had run down there from the castle, crying the whole way. "I hate them all!"  
  
Try as she might to believe this, she couldn't, and knew it. Though she had been at Hogwarts only about a month, it was more like a home to her than the nearly deserted city of Ocenian, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were more a family to her than her parents were.  
  
She took one last look at the castle before she left forever. She saw a distant blob that looked a bit like Harry come running out the front door, then stop and look around.  
  
"Oh no," she said. She turned around again and fled into the forest.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Standing on the front steps leading to the castle, Harry looked around for Callen. He wanted to apologize to her for acting like a jerk and beg her to stay for a while longer. He couldn't see her anywhere, and was becoming increasingly nervous when he saw a flash of red hair. Sure enough, there was Callen, darting between trees.  
  
"Callen!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. If she heard him yell, she didn't acknowledge him. "Callen!" he yelled again. He ran down to the forest, then paused a minute, debating the stupidity of what he was about to do.  
  
Callen watched from her lofty perch in an old tree as Harry raced through the trees toward her. She sat as still as she could possibly sit, praying that he wouldn't see her. Luckily (or so she thought) for her, he didn't. Later on, however, she would wish that he had seen her.  
  
She stayed in the tree till Harry was out of sight and she couldn't hear him crashing through the underbrush anymore, then climbed down. She started off in a different direction, praying that she was going toward the myriod.  
  
As she walked, she began to feel slightly better, now that she was headed back to her home. She even began to sing, a song that her mother had taught her.  
  
As she hiked, she didn't notice the sky getting darker, or that she didn't seem to be getting any closer to the myriod. Finally, though, she realized that it was nearly pitch black out and there were storm clouds rumbling overhead.  
  
"Wonderful," she muttered. She kept walking till she found a good tree for sleeping in, then climbed it, wrapped up in Harry's cloak, and fell asleep, just as the sky opened up and poured.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Harry, meanwhile, was still searching for her, his wand lit and his cloak pulled tight against the pelting rain.  
  
"Callen!" he shouted. "Callen, come on! I'm sorry!"  
  
Nothing happened, except the sky lit up with lightning.  
  
"Damn it," Harry swore and held his wand up higher, increasing the tiny circle of light. "Callen? Where are you? Please, come back inside!"  
  
No one answered him. Harry was beginning to become frantic with worry. Aside from the rain, it was silent for a few minutes. Somewhere off to his right, he heard a girl's scream.  
  
"Callen!" he shouted, running in the direction of the scream. "CALLEN!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Callen had awoken when lightning struck a nearby tree, setting it afire. The rain had quickly put out the blaze, much to her relief. That wasn't what had made her scream, however.  
  
"What are you doing out here, child?" a chilling voice asked. Callen looked around, frightened.  
  
"Who's there? Show yourself," she said bravely.  
  
"Down here, child," the voice said. Callen started shivering. Grasping the branch she was sitting on firmly, she leaned forward a bit and looked down. She screamed and nearly fell out of the tree, what she saw terrified her so.  
  
It was the cloaked figure from hers and Harry's dream. Only now, she could see its face - and that frightened her more than not seeing it.  
  
His face was like that of a snake, with slits for the nostrils and flat, ugly red eyes. Callen bit back another scream, closing her eyes and leaning back.  
  
"You are frightened, correct?" the voice said mockingly. "There is nothing to be afraid of. I do not need you to kill you. I need you to lure someone else."  
  
"Who.who are you?" she whispered, her eyes still closed.  
  
"I? I am the Lord Voldemort," the voice said. Callen felt herself go cold at the sound of his name. She tried to remember where she had heard it before, and why it seemed to be a bad sign. She had a flashback from the night before, when Hermione had been talking to her.  
  
"I think he meant Voldemort," she remembered Hermione saying.  
  
"But how would Voldemort know who I am?" she whispered to herself.  
  
"How? Yes, how indeed," Voldemort mused. "You will learn that in time. Wormtail," he said, turning abruptly to a cowering figure behind him.  
  
"Yes, Master," the man - Wormtail - said in a terrified voice.  
  
"Get her down. Take her to the myriod."  
  
Callen's heart leapt. Maybe this Voldemort character wasn't so bad after all, if he was letting her go home.  
  
Voldemort saw the expression on her face and smiled coldly.  
  
"Wrong myriod, girl. You aren't going home." He smiled, an evil grin that seemed to be more a grimace. "This myriod is one that was created for my use," he explained. "It leads to my father's old house, where we will be taking you."  
  
Callen grasped the tree tighter. There was no way she was going to get down now.  
  
"You'll never get me out of her," she said. "I'm not coming down!"  
  
"We shall see. Wormtail, get her down."  
  
The cowering man approached the tree. In his hands, he held what looked to be a silver rope. At one end of the rope was a loop.  
  
"Just come on down," Wormtail said. Callen noticed that one of his hands was silver, like the rope. "Just come down right now and there won't be any trouble."  
  
"No!" Callen yelled. She pulled a twig off the branch and threw it at Wormtail, who sputtered indignantly.  
  
"Master," he whined.  
  
"Just get her down," Voldemort snapped.  
  
Wormtail threw the rope over a branch that was slightly above Callen. The end swung down near her, and she noticed that it was the looped end. In the dim light, it looked slightly like a noose, she thought.  
  
"We don't have all night," Voldemort said, irritated.  
  
Wormtail winced and lowered the looped end so it was even with Callen. She moved as close to the trunk of the tree as she possible could, then climbed to a higher branch.  
  
"Don't do it that way," Voldemort said, exasperated. "Try throwing it at her instead of near her!"  
  
"Master, I cannot aim," Wormtail said pitifully.  
  
"You think that the hand I gave you will not aim perfectly?" Voldemort scoffed.  
  
Wormtail made a squeaking noise, pulled the rope down, and aimed. In that brief second, Callen reached up to grab the branch above her. She pulled herself up as fast as she could, but started to lose her grip on the wet bark.  
  
"HARRY!" she screamed. "Help me!"  
  
Wormtail threw the rope.she was slipping.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Running as fast as he could toward the direction of Callen's first scream, Harry heard her cry out again.  
  
"I'm coming, Callen!" he shouted, running even faster and wishing for his broomstick. "Please, don't let Aragog have found her," he prayed silently.  
  
Another piercing scream cut through the trees. Harry was running so fast that if it hadn't been for pure luck, he would've fallen and never stood up.  
  
"Hang on, Callen! I'm coming!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Callen didn't fall out of the tree, which was lucky for her since she probably would've died. Instead, she landed on the branch she had just been on, right as the silver loop fell over her head and around her waist and arms. It tightened so that her arms were pinned to her sides. That was when she screamed again, just a long, wordless scream. Wormtail gave the rope a slight jerk, and her body instantly went limp. Her mind, however, remained her own.  
  
"Finally, you manage to do something correctly," Voldemort said to Wormtail as he pulled a rag doll-like Callen from the tree. She landed on the ground with a thud, but felt no pain. Wormtail made a face, and Voldemort smiled. "Ah, yes, it is not the first time you manage to do something correctly. You did manage to bring me back to life."  
  
Wormtail smiled painfully. "Anything for you, master," he said.  
  
Callen's mind raced. She had no idea what was going on, but it she thought that maybe she was caught in a lyrim - a rope used on prisoners in her kingdom that made them do whatever the person holding the other end wanted them to do.  
  
Sure enough, when Wormtail gave the rope another tug, she stood up and started walking behind him and Voldemort, even though she couldn't remember ever giving her legs the command to stand up and walk.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
After steadily walking for about ten minutes, they reached a myriod. Callen noticed that this one was slightly greenish, instead of silver, like the one that led to her home. She tried as hard as she could to force her legs to stop, but it didn't work. She just kept walking and following Wormtail and Voldemort. Voldemort stepped through the myriod, and Wormtail started to follow.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Harry burst through a wall of trees, then stopped, feeling he couldn't go on. He heard someone walking nearby. No, it's three people, he thought. He looked ahead a little bit, and saw three shapes about to go through a myriod. He started running again, trying to make as little noise as possible. He got closer and when he realized who the three figures were, he gasped, a feeling of dread in his stomach. It was Voldemort and Wormtail - and they had Callen. Voldemort went through the myriod and Wormtail was just about to follow, pulling Callen with him.  
  
"Callen!" he yelled, sprinting toward the myriod.  
  
Wormtail turned, pulling the rope, so Callen turned as well. She saw Harry and tried to yell to him, but failed. When Wormtail realized it was Harry, he started to drop the rope. At the last second, he ran through the myriod and pulled Callen behind him.  
  
"No!" Harry shouted, pulling out his wand. "NO!" He raised his wand, preparing to curse Wormtail.it was too late. Wormtail and Callen were gone.  
  
(A/N: Sorry if it takes me a while to post chapters, my father did something funky to my computer and all my files mysteriously disappeared.I'm in the process of finding them, so it might take a while for the chapters to get posted. Please review!) 


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